15/5/2014, General Wojciech Jarulzelski
died, aged 90. He was appointed Defence Minister of Poland in 1968; in 1970 his
troops shot dozens of striking shipyard workers in Gdansk and Gdynia, and was leader of Poland during
the rise of Solidarnosc.

10/4/2010, Polish President Lech Walesa and other senior
government officials were killed in a plane crash near Smolensk, Russia. They
were travelling to Russia to mark the 70th anniversary of the Katyn
massacre. Russia blamed pilot error; Poland blamed poor pilot advice from
Russian air traffic control.

26/8/2005, Jean Michael Jarre held a ‘Space
of Freedom’ concert in Gdansk, Poland, to mark the 25th anniversary
of the creation of the Solidarnosc
trade union.

14/10/1992, The Russian KGB handed
over documents to Poland’s Lech Walesa revealing that the Russians killed
Polish officers in 1940 in the Katyn Forest Massacre. The Kremlin had
previously insisted it was the Germans who had done this.

22/12/1990.Lech Walesa became president
of Poland.

27/1/1990. The Polish Communist Party dissolved itself. On
28/1/1990 East Germany formed an all-party government.

19/9/1989, Poland became the first
country in Eastern Europe to end one-party rule, as Solidarity’sTadeusz
Mazowiecki became Prime Minister.

19/8/1989,Tadeusz Mazowiecki of Solidarity
became Prime Minister of Poland, the first non-Communist PM in 42 years.

19/7/1989, General
Wojciech Jaruselski, who imposed martial law in 1981, was elected
President of Poland by 270 votes out of 537, However he was the only candidate,
233 voted against and 34 abstained. Solidarity declared the vote illegal.
Poland was bankrupt with a resentful population.

19/6/1989, The
second round of elections to the Polish National Assembly. Solidarity won an overwhelming victory.

4/6/1989.Poland held partially-free
elections. The
result was a major embarrassment for the country’s leaders as Solidarity
won the lion’s share of the vote. On a turnout of 62% - smaller than Solidarity had hoped for – the union’s
candidates had by 6/6/1989 won all Warsaw’s constituencies except
Zoliborz, where the result was still awaited. In some constituencies Solidarity
won over 80% of the vote cast. Few government candidates won over 18% of the
votes cast.

17/4/1989.In Poland, Solidarnosc was
legalised after an 8-year ban.

5/4/1989, The
Polish Trades Union Solidarnosc won
the right to contest partially-free elections in Poland and to publish its own
newspaper. Solidarnosc had been
banned by the Polish Government under General Jaruzelski since 1982.

29/4/1988.The worst industrial unrest in
Poland since the 1981 martial law crackdown on Solidarnosc. Workers demanded large pay
rises after the Polish government raised food prices by 40%, rents by 50%, and
electricity by 100%; a spell of austerity was needed to restore economic
stability, said the government.

30/10/1984, The body of pro-Solidarity
priest Father
Jerzy Popieluszko, 37, was found by police frogmen in a reservoir in
Wloclawek Reservoir, northern Poland. He had been kidnapped 12 days earlier; hardline
opponents of Prime Minister Wojciech Jaruzelski were suspected.

7/2/1983, The Polish Communist Party suffered a financial crisis as many members
refuse to pay their dues.

3/1/1983. Poland formed new trade
unions.

19/12/1982.Poland lifted
martial law. In
May 1981 more than 3,000 Poles were arrested when Polish police used teargas
and water cannonsto break up
anti-government demonstrations in Warsaw. Other serious riots took place in the
Polish cities of Szcecin, Wroclaw, the steel town of Nova Huta, and the Baltic
port of Gdansk where Solidarnosc
began. In October 1981 Solidarnosc
and Rural Solidarnosc were banned,
but their leader, Lech Walesa, who had been held in prison since
late 1981, was released on 12/11/1982.

12/11/1982.In Poland, Lech Walesa was freed after one year’s
detention.

8/10/1982.The trades union Solidarnosc was outlawed in Poland.

17/2/1982, General Jaruselski imposed martial law in Poland
as he cracked down on Solidarnosc.

12/12/1981. The
Communists outlawed the Polish Trade Union Solidarity, and imposed martial law in Poland.

7/8/1981.In
Poland, 1 million Solidarity members went on strike, in protest over food shortages.

27/3/1981, Polish workers staged a General
Strike in protest at police harassment of the Solidarnosc Union. The Polish leader, General
Jaruzelski, was considering banning Solidarnosc and declaring martial law.

9/2/1981.General Jaruselski, Defence Minister, became Prime
Minister of Poland.
He had close links with the USSR and promised a crackdown on Solidarity and its leader Lech Walesa.

31/10/1980, The
Polish Government recognised Solidarity.

22/9/1980.The Polish trades union Solidarnosc was founded.

30/8/1980.Lech Walesa won the right to form
independent trades unions in Poland.

14/8/1980. Polish ship
workers went on strike and seized the Lenin shipyard at Gdansk. A wave of strikes in
Poland had been triggered by a rise in
the meat price. Panic buying of food in Poland ensued, as 17,000 ship
workers struck. The strike took on a political dimension as the Trade Union Solidarnosc (Solidarity) demanded the legalisation
of independent Trades Unions, an end to press censorship, and the release of
imprisoned dissidents. In September the Polish authorities gave in and on
17/9/1980 the Independent National Committee of Solidarnosc convened in Gdansk,
electing the shipworker’s
leader Lech
Walesa (born 1943) as its Chairman. In 2002 Poland and 10
other nations succeeded in their applications to join the EU in 2004, enlarging
the EU from 15 to 25 members.

24/6/1976, In Poland, Jaroszewicz announced large food price increases,
believing that one sudden large riise was better than a number of smaller ones,
Basic food prices would rise some 60% from 27/6/1976. Sugar would be up 100%,
meat an average 69%, and butter and cheese up 30%. Low wage earners and OAPs
would receive pay rises to compensate, and farmers would be paid more for their
produce. On 25/6/1976 there were riots, some violent, across Poland. Many
rioters suffered arrest, police brutality, summary imprisonment, and dismissal
from their jobs. However an amnesty in July 1977 meant most were released from
jail.

20/12/1970 The Polish leader Gomulka
resigned after more rioting, to be replaced by Edward Gierek.

16/12/1970.Six killed in riots at the
Gdansk shipyard, Poland.

15/12/1970, Food riots in Poland. Poor
weather conditions caused bad harvests in 1969 and 1970, and imports of grain
to feed animals had virtually ceased because Gomulka wanted Poland to be
self-sufficient in animal feed by 1970. Pig and cattle numbers fell
dramatically and meat prices soared. Heavy price rises on consumer goods came
in just before Christmas 1970.

8/3/1968, Student unrest in Poland
intensified. On 30/1/1968 a play by Mickiewicz, Dziady (The Forefathers) was shown at the Warsaw National Theatre
for the last time; the authorities were concerned that the play provoked
anti-Soviet sentiments in its audience. On the occasion of its last showing,
Warsaw University students staged a street demonstration. The organisers of the
demonstration were arrested; meanwhile the Warsaw branch of the Writers Union,
supported by well-known personalities such as Slonimski, Jastrun, Andrzejewksi, Kolakowski
and Jasienica
protested the decision to close Dziady
as Party censorship curtailing creativity. On 8/3/1968 a student protest
meeting was brutally broken up by police and paramilitaries. Unrest spread onto
the streets of Warsaw and to other Polish universities. The intelligentsia
supported the students but the workers, influenced by official propaganda,
opposed them. Around 1,200 students were arrested but only a small number were
tried and received jail terms. Some were temporarily suspended from their
university, Some academics also lost their posts, entire university departments
were closed, new academic appointments were made on political grounds not ability,
and overall, academic freedom was replaced by repression and suspicion, at
least while Gomulka
held power in Poland.

20/1/1957.Wladyslaw Gomulka was elected First Secretary of
the Polish Communist Party. Aware of the USSR’s crackdown in Hungary in 1956 he
tempered ideas for a Polish form of Communism, strengthening links between
Poland and the USSR. However he ended collective farming in Poland, returning
80% of arable land to private hands, and curbed the worst excesses of the
Polish secret police.

8/12/1956, The Polish government completed a process of reconciliation with the
Catholic Church. Cardinal Wyszynski had been released from prison on
26/10/1956, and on this day the Church was now free to make its own
ecclesiastical appointments. Religious teaching in schools, and religious posts
in hospitals and the army, were restored. Criticism of government policies in
church sermons was permitted.

28/6/1956. In riots in Poznan,
Poland, tanks
were called out; 38 people died and 270 were wounded.

1/8/1955, Warsaw hosted the Communist Youth Congress.

20/3/1950, Poland's Sejm passed a law
requiring the nation's Roman Catholic
churches, and all other religious associations, to transfer their property to
government ownership. The purpose, according to the introduction, was
"to remove the last remains of the landowner feudal privileges in the
Church estates and to secure the material needs of the clergy". The church
pastors were allowed to keep and operate their own private farms, and houses of
worship and office buildings were exempt, but all other church-owned assets
were confiscated.

18/1/1946, Poland appropriated all farms of over 100 hectares
(50 hectares for arable land) and redistributed the land to farm labourers. 6
million hectares of land were reassigned, resulting in the disappearance of the
landowning gentry class.

29/9/1943.Polish
leader Lech Walesawas born in
Popovo, the son of a carpenter.

2/10/1938, Poland annexed Trans-Olza, taking over from
Czechoslovakia that portion of Austrian Silesia to which Poland had laid claim
since 1920.

12/5/1935, Pilsudski, Polish leader, died.

6/3/1933.Poland occupied
the free city of Danzig, now renamed Gdansk.

25/7/1932. The USSR,
Poland, and Japan signed a
non-aggression pact.

26/10/1931, 11 political leaders went on trial in Poland for
conspiring to overthrow Józef Piłsudski.

14/5/1926, Josef Pilsudski seized power in a military
coup in Poland.

15/11/1923. Poland
was in the grip of hyperinflation, though not as bad as Germany’s. The Polish
mark went from 9.8 to the US$ in November 1918 to 580 by end-December 1920, and
to 17,800 to the US$ by December 1922. By November 1932 the rate stood at
2,300,000 Polish Marks to the US$.

14/3/1923. The Allies recognised Vilna and East
Galicia as Polish.

15/5/1922. Germany ceded Upper
Silesia to Poland.

20/10/1921, The Silesia
Crisis was settled by the League of Nations.The League awarded two thirds of Upper
Silesia to Germany, but Poland gained
the coal mines, much of the industry, and a substantial German minority in its
share.

3/3/1921, Poland
signed an alliance with Romania. This resulted in a decline in previously-close
Hungarian-Polish relations.

9/2/1921. A peace treaty was signed between Poland and Russia,
at Riga.

17/11/1921, The Polish Constitution was established.

15/11/1920.Danzig
was declared a free city.

6/10/1920. Poland and Russia
signed an armistice at Riga,
Latvia.

19/8/1920, The Russian army was defeated by the Poles at Warsaw.

16/8/1920.As Russian troops closed in on Warsaw,
US warships were sent to Danzig. On 23/8/1920, with the support of British airmen,
the Poles repelled the Russian advance on Warsaw.

31/7/1920. Russia postponed peace talks and marched on Warsaw.

23/7/1920, Poland sought peace with Russia.

10/7/1920, Lloyd George proposed the Curzon Line as a
Polish-Russian frontier.Subsequent
correspondence was handled by the UK Foreign Secretary, George Curzon.The line, from Grodno
through Brest-Litovsk and Przemysl to the Carpathians, excluded from Poland lands
mainly inhabited by Ukrainians, Lithuanians, and Russians.Poland rejected the Curzon
proposal, subsequently securing twice as much as Lloyd George suggested.In
September 1939 the Russian and Germans divided Poland along, approximately, the
Curzon line and in 1945 it became the eastern frontier of Poland.

6/7/1920. Major offensive by Red Army against Poland.
Poland sought peace with Russia on
23/7/1920. On 31/7/1920 the Russians postponed peace talks and marched on Warsaw.

27/12/1918, Poznan rebelled against the Germans, ending a
103-year-old German occupation.

22/11/1918, The Poles took Lvov.

6/11/1918.Republic of Poland proclaimed.

5/11/1918, The Poles
occupied Lvov, Galicia.

27/10/1918.Poland declared its independence.

15/8/1917, In
Lausanne Dmowski formed a Polish National Committee, It was almost a
government-in-exile, recognised by the Allies as representing Polish interests.

4/6/1917.In
France, with the co-operation of the provisional Russian government, a Polish
army was formed to fight Germany.

15/8/1906, ‘Bloody
Wednesday’ in Poland. 80 people were killed in terrorist attacks by socialists
against Russian occupation of the country. Pilsudsky had visited Japan in 1904 and
secured their backing in the fight against Russia; Japan was fighting Russia in
the Far East.

12/11/1905,Russia imposed martial law in Poland.

18/6/1905, A group of striking textile workers from Lodz,
Poland, were fired upon by Cossacks and soldiers, killing five. This led to
several days of rioting, in which (official figures) 151 were killed, including
55 Poles, 79 Jews and 17 Germans. The Polish middle classes feared more unrest
and over the next year some 33,000 applied for passports to emigrate from
Poland.

1/2/1905, The General Strike that began in Warsaw (27/1/1905)
now spread to Czestochowa and the Dabrowa Basin.

27/1/1905, A General Strike began in Warsaw in support of
socialism and workers rights The army was brought in to suppress the strike and
29 companies of infantry along with 5 squadrons of cavalry and 4 Cossack
companies killed (official figures) 64 strikers, a further 29 dying of their
wounds later. In fact some 200 were killed and 270 wounded.

18/11/1904, In
Poland the illegal Polish Peasant Union (Polski Zwiazek Ludowy, PZL) was
formed. It demanded a political voice for the workers and peasants.

13/11/1904, In the Plac Gryzbowski,
Warsaw, a serious worker uprising took place. In clashes with the police and
army, 6 were killed, 27 wounded and hundreds arrested.

28/7/1904, In Poland the Interior Minister, Plehve,
was assassinated by the socialist revolutionary, Sazonov.

28/7/1895, In Poland
the Peasant Electoral Committee (Ludowy Komitet Wyborcy) assembled in Rzeszow;
from this meeting emerged the Polish Peasant Party (Polskie Stronnictwo
Ludowe). The PSL demandeduniversal
suffrage, redistribution of land from the gentry, and an end to peasant service
obligations to their landlord.

6/5/1892, A
worker’s uprising began in Lodz, Poland; all workers came out on strike. Order
was not restored until 10/5/1893, by which time 217 people had been killed or
wounded and 350 arrested.

20/12/1885, The trial of Proletariat
Party members in Poland ended (began 23/11/1885). The trial produced the first
socialist martyrs; the Russian Piotr Bardovsky, also Stanislaw Kunicki, Michal Ossowski
(shoemaker), and Jan Petrusinski (weaver) were hanged on 28/1/1886. Warysnki
was also found guilty, and died in the Schlusselberg fortress in St Petersburg
in 1889. Maria
Bohuszewicz took over leadership of the Party and was herself
condemned to exile; she died on the way to Siberia. Stefan Ulrych became the next
leader, and was sentenced to exile in Siberia in 1888. Marcin Kasprzak and Ludwik
Kulczycki became the next leaders. The movement laid the foundations
of Polish socialism.

23/11/1885, The
(political) trial of Proletariat Party members in Poland began.

1/9/1882, In Poland
Ludwik
Warynski founded the Proletariat Party,, a ‘social-revolutionary party
working for the liberation of both the rural and urban working class’.

22/1/1863, An uprising in
Warsaw against Russian rule.

18/11/1860, Paderewski, Polish politician and first Prime Minister of Poland, was
born in Kurylowka.

29/11/1850, An uprising began
in Warsaw against Russian rule.

22/4/1848, To
placate a restive peasantry, the governor of Galicia, Franz von Stadion, ordered that
peasant tenant farmers should receive the freehold to their land and the gentry
landlords be compensated by the State. Furthermore on 7/9/1848 (see date above
also) the peasants were granted unrestricted access to woods, meadows and
pastures.

13/4/1846, To quell
peasant unrest, the Polish government abolished the duty on them of extra days
unpaid labour previously due to their manorial lord. There was an ongoing
famine in Poland, aggravated by cholera and typhus outbreaks; in 1847 there
were 380,000 deaths in Poland, compared to the previous annual average of
153,000.

26/5/1831.The Russians
defeated the Poles at the Battle of Ostrolenska.

25/2/1831.The Poles halted
the Russian advance at the Battle of Grochow.

10/10/1794, The Polish army, 7,000 menunder Tadeusz
Kosciusko was heavily defeated by the Russians, 16,000 men, at
Maciejowice, and its leader taken prisoner. Kosciusko was released by Czar Paul
in 1796, and died on 15/10/1817 when his horse fell over a precipice.Polish
army was heavily defeated by the Russians, and its leader taken prisoner.

23/1/1793, Prussia signed a treaty
with Russia.Poland was partitioned, with Prussia obtaining Danzig, Thorn,
Posen, and most of Great Poland.Russia
received Minsk, Pinsk, and the frontier on the Zbrucz.Austria received promises of help in re-conquering
Belgium, as well as some Polish territories.

18/5/1792. Russian troops invaded Poland.

3/5/1791, Poles, seeking the rebirth of their country,
declared a parliamentary constitution in Warsaw.

5/8/1772.Russia, Prussia, and Austria signed a treaty
agreeing on the partition of Poland. Poland lost about a third of its land
and half its population. Frederick II of Prussia wanted the wedge of
territory known as West Prussia separating Brandenburg from East Prussia.
Catherine of
Russia saw a weak Poland as an opportunity for Russian expansion. To
appease Austrian concerns about an expansionist Russia, Austria was given the
Polish land of Silesia.

5/10/1763, Death of King Augustus III of Poland, also Grand Duke
of Lithuania. Born 17/10/1696, he acceded to the throne in 1734.

5/10/1735, The War of the
Polish Succession ended with the Treaty of Vienna. The Elector of Saxony was accepted
as King
Frederick Augustus III of Poland.

2/6/1734, Danzig fell to the Russians after an 8-month siege.
Stanislas
managed to escape to Prussia.

1/2/1733, Augustus II
of Poland died aged 62, precipitating the War of the Polish Succession. Austria
and Russia demanded the succession of Augustus’s only legitimate son, the 36-year
old Elector
of Saxony, However France persuaded the Polish nobilityto restore Stanislas Leszczynski. Russia
invaded Poland, forcing Leszczynski to flee to Danzig.

17/6/1696, John III Sobieski, King of Poland, died aged
72, after a 20-year reign. In 1697 Poland chose the Elector of Saxony, Frederick
Augustus, aged 27, to succeed him. He was crowned in September 1697
and ruled as Augustus
II until his death in 1733.

1/4/1683, Poland
made a treaty of mutual defence with the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I,
against the threat from Ottoman Turkey.

1670, The Ukrainian Cossacks rebelled against Polish rule, but
were defeated by General Sobieski.

31/1/1667, After eight years war between Russia and Poland, the Treaty of Andruszow between them
divided up Ukraine between them, along the Dneiper River.

1632, Polish King Sigismund III Vasa died aged 65 after a
44-year reign. Russia declared war on Po;land as Sigisund’s son, King Ladislas IV, aged 37, began a 16-year reign.

28/7/1656, The Battle of Warsaw began
(ended 30/7/1656).

20/5/1648, King Ladislas IV of Poland died
aged 55, after a 16-year reign. He was succeeded by his 39-year-old Jesuit
brother, who reigned until 1668 as John II Casimir.

2/6/1624, John Sobieski, King of Poland, was born.

18/10/1588, The Polish
postal service was created,
when King
Zygmunt August established a permanent postal route from Kraków to
Venice.

12/12/1586, Stephen Bathory of Poland died
suddenly, aged 53. He was succeeded by the 12-year old son of the Swedish
Kingas Sigismund II.

10/8/1582. After 25 years of conflict,
Russia made peace with Poland and gave up its claim on the Baltic state of
Livonia.

15/12/1575, Stephen Bathory became King of Poland.

6/7/1572, Sigismund II, King of Poland, died.

1/7/1569, The Union
of Lublin united the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Treaty was signed at Lublin Castle. This strengthened Poland
against possible attacks from Russia.

1/4/1548, Sigismund I, King of Poland, died aged 81, after a reign of 42
years. He was succeeded by his 28-year old son, Sigismund II who ruled for 24
years.

8/9/1514, At the Battle
of Orsha, a combined force of Poles and Ukrainians defeated the Russians.

5/8/1506. Death of King Alexander of Poland. Born in 1461, he
succeeded his brother Albert to the Polish throne in 1501.His power
was greatly eroded by the Polish nobility and senate. Consequently, because of
lack of funds, Alexander
was unable to restrain much the expansion of the Muscovy or the Teutonic Order
in Prussia.

19/10/1466, King Casimir IV signed the
Second Peace of Thorn, ending thewarfare which began in 1454 when Casimir IV agreed to help the Prussian
Confederation against the Teutonic Knights.

1447, The nobility of Poland chose the 20-year-old Grand
Duke of Lithiania to succeed the late Ladislas VI, his older brother. He began a
45-year reign as Casimir IV. He reunited Poland and Lithuania, giving Poland
access to the Baltic.

10/11/1444, Ladislas VI, King of Poland, died.

1/6/1434, Ladislas V Jagiello, (born ca. 1362), King of
Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, died aged 84 after a 38-year reign. He was
succeeded by his 10-year-old son who ruled as Ladislas VI until his death in
1444.

30/11/1427, King Casimir IV of Poland was born.

15/7/1410. The Poles and Lithuanians defeated the Teutonic
Knights at Tannenberg.

5/11/1370.King Casimir III of Poland died in a hunting
accident, aged 60, after a 37 year reign. He had repulsed a Mongol invasion,
annexed Galicia, and encouraged the immigration of Jews to serve as bankers and
tax collectors. He founded the University of Cracow, and codified the law and
administration.

3/1333, King Ladislas IV of Poland died
aged 72, after a 13-year reign he was succeeded by his 23-year-old son who
ruled for 37 years as Casimir III.

27/9/1332, Battle of Plowce. The Teutonic Knights were defeated by a Polish army
under Ladislas
IV Lokietek.

30/4/1310, King Casimir III of Poland was born.

18/3/1241, The Mongols plundered the Polish city of Cracow, their furthest
penetration westwards.

1138, King Boleslav III (Wry-mouth) of
Poland died aged 62 after a 36-year reign, He divided his realm amongst his
five sons.

1067, King Boleslav II captured the
city of Kiev.

1058, Poland’s Grand Duke Casimir died aged 43,
having restored Christianity and regained much of the territory Poland lost
with the help of the late King Henry III of Germany. Casimir
was succeeded by his 19-year-old son who ruled until 1079 as Boleslav II
(The Bold).

1025, King Boleslav died, having made
Poland one of Europe’s most powerful countries, with Russia as a vassal state,
ruling territory from the Danube to the Baltic. He was succeeded by his son, Mieszko II,
who ruled until 1034; however other sons fought for parts of the country, and
Poland lost much of its territorial gains to neighbouring countries.

1018, The Treaty of Bautzen ended a 15-year war between Germany and Poland. Boleslav the
Brave gained Lusatia.

994, Boleslav compeleted his invasion
of eastern Pomerania.

992, Meiszko I of the Plast family died.
He was succeeded by 25-year-old Boleslav the Brave (Chobry),who ruled until
1025. Boleslav
invaded eastern Pomerania so as to gain access to the Baltic.

14/4/966, Mieszko I, the first
duke of Poland, was baptized a Christian. This
is usually considered the beginning of the Polish state.

965, Duke Mieszko arrived at what is now Poznan
Castle, on an island in the Warta/Cybina Rivers.